Baileyville ends Cougar’s season with 58-12 defeat
Staff writer
Facing the top-ranked team in Eight-Man Division II — Baileyville B&B Falcons — Centre football coach Kelly Steiner hoped to neutralize the Falcons’ high-powered running game.
Allowing Baileyville’s three-headed monster backfield of Cody Heiman, Eric Huerter, and Mitch Engelken to get on track would cause the game to come apart for the Cougars.
Easier said than done. The Falcons left little doubt as to why they will be favored to win the Division II title with a victory over Centre Saturday at Centre, 58-12. Baileyville’s record stands at 11-0 with the victory.
Of Baileyville’s nine drives, eight resulted in touchdowns.
The only thing that kept the Falcons from a perfect nine-for-nine was time running out in the first half.
“We knew they were going to be a strong running team and they’re powerful,” Steiner said. “We were trying to concentrate on stopping the run and we had a couple of plays where we didn’t make a tackle.
“They jumped on us early and got us down.”
It wasn’t just the Falcons that made the game tough for Centre.
A strong south wind forced the Cougars to start all five of their first-quarter drives from their own 15-yard line. All four of Baileyville’s drives started no further than Centre’s 31.
By the time Centre had its back to the wind in the second quarter, the falcons had buried the Cougars under a 30-0 avalanche.
Baileyville scored 16 points after a pair of interceptions. The Falcon defense smothered Centre, yielding just 96 yards total.
Even going against the wind, Baileyville had little trouble moving the ball, piling up 325 total yards with the ground game accounting for 245.
Having to start from their own 15, the Cougars only made it past midfield on one of their eight drives. Only quarterback Tanner Brunner could get anything going against Baileyville.
Playing his final game as a Cougar, Brunner scored both touchdowns, carrying the ball 11 times for a team high 67 yards.
Brunner would have had another touchdown, but his 31-yard run at the start of the second quarter was negated by a block in the back penalty on the Cougars.
That same drive, where Centre crossed midfield, ended with Huerter intercepting a pass.
Centre finally got on the scoreboard with 3:24 left in the first half. Brunner returned a kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown.
The two-point conversion was stuffed, leaving the score 42-6.
The Falcons answered with Huerter hitting a wide-open Logan Haug for a 28-yard touchdown pass to make it 50-6 — Haug’s second touchdown catch of the game; he caught a 14-yard score from Huerter in the first quarter.
The Cougars pulled to 50-12 with just over 30 seconds remaining in the first half. Rustyn Kerbs received a toss for a sweep when he pitched the ball back to Brunner. On the flea-flicker play, Brunner scanned the field for an open receiver finding all the Cougars covered. He tucked the ball and ran for a 46-yard touchdown.
The two-point conversion appeared to be good, but the running back pass by Casey Kristek to Kerbs was ruled out of bounds, leaving the score 50-12 at halftime.
Centre’s season was in jeopardy with the 45-point rule threatening to take effect with one more Falcon touchdown and a two-point conversion.
With Baileyville receiving to begin the second half, the Falcons ran for a pair of 27-yard runs on reverses to set up first-and-goal on the Cougar 5.
Engelken put the finishing touches on the Cougars’ season, scoring his second touchdown of the day two minutes into the second half.
The two-point conversion gave the Falcons the 45-point margin it needed to end the game.
Along with Brunner, Kerbs, Kristek, Ben Wirtz, Jacob Jirak, Cole Svoboda, and Brian Burhoop closed out high school careers by turning around a program.
“It’s been a great season,” Steiner said. “We have a great group of seniors this year and they really got the program turned around. These guys did.”
Centre’s season ends at 10-1.